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Sunday, May 25, 2008

'Rolling Thunder' Honors U.S. Military With Annual Biker Pilgrimage

It's hog heaven in the nation's capital.

For the 21st year in a row, Rolling Thunder roared into Washington, D.C., on Sunday for its annual veterans tribute, bringing together an estimated 350,000 motorcyclists — along with thousands of activists, fans and spectators.

Bikers from the group's 88 chapters —across the country and overseas— came together to bring attention to U.S. service members held captive or missing in action.

Riders took off on their rumbling "Ride For Freedom," driving from the Pentagon, across the Potomac River by way of the Memorial Bridge and on to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The party-like atmosphere was punctuated by speeches, tributes and music. Actor John Amos, who read Gen. Colin Powell's "A Letter to a Soldier" lent his voice to the cause.



Read the Rest, and view pictures, at Fox News

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ELLSWORTH WATCH - U.S. Air Force airmen watch the flag being lowered to half-staff during a Memorial Day retreat on Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., May 15, 2008. U.S. Air Force photo Senior Airman Marc I. Lane

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The Things They Carried

They carried P-38 can openers and heat tabs, watches and dog tags, insect repellent, gum, cigarettes, Zippo lighters, salt tablets, compress bandages, ponchos, Kool-Aid, two or three canteens of water, iodine tablets, sterno, LRRP-rations, and C-rations stuffed in socks. They carried standard fatigues, jungle boots, bush hats, flak jackets, and steel pots. They carried the M-16 assault rifle. They carried trip flares and Claymore mines, M-60 machine guns, the M-70 grenade launcher, M-14's, CR-15s, Stoners, Swedish K's, 66 mm Laws, shotguns, 45 caliber pistols, silencers, the sound of bullets, rockets, and choppers, and sometimes the sound of silence. They carried C-4 plastic explosives, an assortment of hand grenades, PRC-25 radios, knives and machetes.

Some carried napalm, CBU's, and large bombs; some risked their lives to rescue others. Some escaped the fear, but dealt with the death and damages. Some made very hard decisions, and some just tried to survive.

They carried malaria, dysentery, ringworms, and leaches. They carried the land itself as it hardened on their boots. They carried stationery, pencils, and pictures of their loved ones real and imagined. They carried love for people in the real world, and love for one another. And sometimes they disguised that love: "Don't mean nothin'!"

They carried memories!

For the most part, they carried themselves with poise and a kind of dignity. Now and then, there were times when panic set in, and people squealed, or wanted to, but couldn't; when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said, "Dear God," and hugged the earth and fired their weapons blindly, and cringed and begged for the noise to stop, and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and God and their parents, hoping not to die. They carried the traditions of the United States military, and memories and images of those who served before them. They carried grief, terror, longing, and their reputations.

They carried the soldier's greatest fear, the embarrassment of dishonor. They crawled into tunnels, walked point, and advanced or flew into fire, so as not to die of embarrassment.

They were afraid of dying, but too afraid to show it. They carried the emotional baggage of men and women who might die at any moment. They carried the weight of the world, and the weight of every free citizen of America .

THEY CARRIED EACH OTHER.



Sent by Major Ross W., via Seamus

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HONORING FALLEN HEROES - U.S. Army Master Sgt. Sandra Quaschnick, right, and U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Jennifer Bailey, left, render salutes during the "Flags In" ceremony to honor fallen heroes at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., May 22, 2008. Quaschnick and Bailey are assigned to the the Fife and Drum Corps of the 3rd U.S. Infantry, "The Old Guard." Defense Dept. photo by Sebastian J. Sciotti Jr.

More Photos

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In Today's News - Sunday, May 25, 2008

Quote of the Day
"The cat in gloves catches no mice."
-- Benjamin Franklin

News of Note
Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Abbas: No Progress in Peace Talks With Israel
Hamas wants Arabs to broker Palestinian accord
US military downplays remarks on al-Qaida's demise

Other Military News
USS Intrepid, war museum, faces new peril — money
Veterans and national cemeteries by the numbers

Worldwide Wackos
Israeli suspected of espionage links with Iran

Homegrown Moonbats
Carter sees superdelegates prompting Clinton to quit

Politics / Government
Obama says fuel prices will change car habits
Carter sees superdelegates prompting Clinton to quit
Obama says Clinton "stirring up" Florida controversy
Republican primary in Idaho. Full coverage of the 2008 election
Obama, McCain have "righteous" problems
Obama on attack: responses quicken as November looms
Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye weds in California

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
Sunday news show lineup

Science / Medicine and Health / Technology
Closing in on Mars
Ice-sampling probe set for Sunday landing on Mars - Video
Space station crew may face another bumpy re-entry
Yahoo buy not a strategy in itself: Microsoft CEO
Tech execs plan for economic troubles
Goldman adds Apple to Americas conviction buy list
Singapore's waste: Trash and burn
Garbage is dirty, but is it a clean fuel?
Blog: Living off the landfill
Turning trash into power
Waste seen as feedstock for energy

Mother Nature
Twisters Strike Oklahoma
VIDEO: Violent Twister Caught on Camera - PHOTOS
Crews Continue to Fight Persistent California Wildfire - PHOTOS - BLOG
Large China Quake Aftershock Injures 260, Kills 1
Conference Pledging Aid to Burma's Cyclone Victims
Man, 76, Becomes Oldest Person to Climb Mount Everest
Rescued Divers Recount Ordeal of Floating Lost - VIDEO
G8 summit emission cut target likely "aspirational"
Race for Antarctic krill a test for green management
StatoilHydro says North Sea oil leak halted
Vattenfall to build carbon capture test plant
Exxon again cuts funds for climate change skeptics
Video: Anger over rain forest dam
US sets condition for aid: unhindered access
Weather cooperates in California wildfire fight

Oddities
Mystery deepens as 4th severed foot found
Warning issued over unlicensed sex drugs

Other News of Note
U.S. lifts travel warning for Indonesia
UAE ready to boost oil output when needed

Fox News
FOXBusiness: Gas Stunts Holiday Travel - GAS TRACKER
TV's 'Laugh-In' Comic Dick Martin Dies at 86

Reuters
Pope urges help for hungry ahead of food summit
Celtics power to road win over Pistons
Mugabe changes tactics ahead of run-off election
Tech sector sees more deals
Housing bill helpful but no panacea
Consumer not so cash-strapped after all
Buffett blames banks for credit crisis
Honda's CEO gears up for next hybrid race
Sony says develops cost-efficient solar cells
Aricom to raise $1 bln to expand in Russia
Swiss bank body raising capital requirements
InBev working on $46 bln Anheuser bid: source
Emirates NBD eyes RBS stake in Saudi affiliate
Fiat in cooperation talks with Chrysler: report
French classroom film lifts gloom as Cannes closes
De Niro sends up Hollywood and Cannes in new film
Sinatra still the chairman with hit album
Video: Rising music star from Ivory Coast
Calderon to tackle Acapulco stink
Red Wings' experience pays off
Celtics power to road win over Pistons
Mickelson regains control at Colonial
Indians end seven-game skid with win over Rangers
Hole in one puts Jimenez in front at PGA Championship

Associated Press
No more Fedspeak on further interest rate cuts
Eastwood, Jolie in running for Cannes prizes
Djokovic advances at French Open
Samuelsson, Red Wings beat Penguins in Cup opener
Celtics beat Pistons in Detroit; lead series 2-1

News Blaze
PHOTOS: Crowd Gathers in Jamilla for Iraqi Army Assistance
IA Soldiers Seize Caches in Sadr City
Soldiers' Angels and Patriot Guard
Iraq News
Operations in Iraq
FOB Warhorse Memorial Photos
Videos

CENTCOM
Petraeus appears before Armed Services Committee
Odierno speaks to Senate at confirmation hearing
First class graduates from Ashraf police academy
Troops, State Dept. aid Iraqi mill owner

USJFCOM
Task Force Ramadi helps free enterprise take hold in Iraq
Command unveils new command and control vision - podcast
Command looks at future capabilities with DoD leadership - podcast
Joint Forces Reserve Officer Orientation Course begins

Multi-National Force - Iraq
With Water Flowing, Soldiers Solving Traffic Flow Problems
Coalition Forces, Iraqi Officials Preplan Improvements in Fallujah
Government of Iraq Making Progress
National Guard Soldiers Attend Combat Lifesaver Class
MND-B Soldiers seize weapons caches, detain two criminals (Baghdad)
Iraqi Police received more than 2,000 police vehicles in 2008 through Foreign Military Sales program
IA Soldiers seize caches in Sadr City
Three bombing cell suspects, 18 others detained
MND-SE holds memorial for fallen Marine (Fallujah)
MND-N Soldiers host driver training course for Iraqi Army Soldiers (FOB Dagger)

DefenseLink
TOP NEWS
Mullen Tells Academy Grads, Stand Up for What's Right - Photos
Bush: Commanders Will Get Resources - Story - Photos
Bush Praises 82nd Paratroopers, Families, Veterans at Fort Bragg
Bush Honors 82nd Airborne Division Soldiers’ Courage, Sacrifice
Petraeus Shares Central Command Challenges

MILITARY NEWS

USS Boxer Crew to Spend Memorial Day Weekend Providing Aid to El Salvador
Military to Integrate Gaming Into Training

IRAQ NEWS

Iraqi Security Forces Grow Strong
New Anbar Government Center Opens
Troops in Iraq Kill Six, Detain 54

AFGHANISTAN NEWS

U.S. Soldiers Train Afghan Border Patrol

REFLECTIONS

Bush Urges Americans to Honor Holiday's Meaning
Arlington ‘Flags In’ Tribute Begins Commemoration
Commentary: Memorial Day vs. Veterans Day
Mullen to Troops: Remember Cost of Freedom
Families See Progress at Pentagon Memorial
Comrades, Loved Ones Contemplate Sacrifice

WOUNDED CARE

Army Psychiatrist Calls Efforts to Reduce Mental Health Care Stigma a 'Total Team Effort'
New Program Offers ‘Care for Caregivers’

FACE OF DEFENSE

Wounded Warrior Leads Medical Battalion

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU

Challenge Coins Thank Vets, Help Nonprofit Groups
Chrysler Supports MacArthur Memorial
Judd Rocks Walter Reed - Photos

Weather
Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Germany
Ansbach Aschaffenburg Berlin Berlin-Tempelhof Berlin/Schonefeld Bremerhaven
Darmstadt Frankfurt Frankfurt/Main Freiburg/Breisgau Garmisch
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Geilenkirchen Gelnhausen Giessen Kitzingen
Hanau Am Main Heidelberg Mainz Mannheim Nurnberg Stuttgart Trier
Wiesbaden Wurzburg

Gitmo

Guam
Agana Agana Heights Agat Andersen AFB Asan Barrigada

Iraq
Al Azamiyah Al Basrah Al Hillah Al Karkh Al Kazimiyah Al Kut
An Nasiriyah Baghdad Baqubah Mosul Najaf Nineveh Tall Kayf

Japan
Kadena Air Base Okinawa Tokyo Yokohama

Today in History
585BC - 1st known prediction of a solar eclipse
1085 - King Alfonso VI of Castily/León occupy Toledo on Moren
1241 - 1st attack on Jewish community of Frankfort-on-the-Main Germany
1522 - Emperor Karel I returns to Spain
1632 - Albrecht von Wallenstein recaptures Prague on Saksen
1659 - Richard Cromwell resigns as English Lord Protector
1660 - English King Charles II lands in Dover
1720 - "Le Grand St. Antoine" reaches Marseille, plague kills 80,000
1721 - John Copson becomes America's 1st insurance agent
1784 - Jews are expelled from Warsaw by Marshall Mniszek
1787 - Constitutional convention opens at Philadelphia, George Washington presiding
1793 - Father Stephen Theodore Badin is 1st US Roman Catholic priest ordained
1810 - Argentina declares independence from Napoleonic Spain (National Day)
1812 - Earthquake destroys Caracas Venezuela
1844 - 1st telegraphed news dispatch is published in Baltimore Patriot
1861 - John Merryman is arrested under suspension of writ of habeas corpus; it later sparks a supreme court decision protecting the writ
1862 - Battle of Winchester, VA
1864 - Battle of New Hope Church, GA
1887 - Gas lamp at Paris Opera catches fire; 200 die
1895 - Oscar Wilde sentenced to 2 years hard labor for being a sodomite
1898 - 1st US troop transport to Manila leaves San Fransisco
1900 - Eyre M. Shaw, 78, becomes oldest gold medalist in the Olympics
1911 - Revolution in México overthrows President José Porfirio Diaz
1914 - British House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule
1915 - 2nd Battle of Ypres ends with 105,000 casualties
1919 - Casey Stengel releases a sparrow from under his baseball cap
1923 - Britain recognizes Transjordan with Abdullah as its leader
1927 - Henry Ford stops producing Model T car (begins Model A)
1928 - Amelia Earhart (as a passenger) is 1st woman to fly Atlantic Ocean
1935 - Jesse Owens equals or breaks 6 world records in one hour
1937 - 1st airmail letter to circle the globe returns to New York
1940 - German troops conquer Boulogne; Golden Gate International Expo reopens
1941 - 5,000 drown in a storm at Ganges Delta region in India
1943 - Riot at Mobile, AL shipyard over upgrading 12 black workers; Trident conference in Washington, DC (operation plan '43 against Japan)
1944 - Partisan leader Tito escapes Germans surrounding Bosnia
1945 - Arther C. Clark proposes relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit
1946 - Abdullah ibn Hussein becomes king of Jordan; Jordan gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1947 - Coal dust explosion rocks Centralia Coal Company's Mine #5 killing 111
1949 - Chinese Red army occupies Shanghai
1950 - Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel opens in NYC
1953 - 1st atomic cannon electronically fired, Frenchman Flat NV
1955 - Series of 19 twisters destroy Udall KS & most of Blackwell OK
1959 - Khrushchev visits Angola; Supreme Court rules that Louisiana prohibiting black-white boxing is unconstitutional
1962 - US unions AFL-CIO starts campaign for 35-hour work week
1963 - Organization for African Unity formed by Chad, Mauritania & Zambia
1964 - Supreme Court rules closing schools to avoid desegregation unconstitutional
1965 - India & Pakistan border fights
1966 - Peru & Argentina soccer fans fight in Lima; 248 die
1968 - Gateway Arch in St Louis dedicated
1969 - Sudanese government is overthrown in a military coup
1973 - Argentine Peronist Hector Cámpora installed as president
1973 - US launches 1st Skylab; crew Kerwin, Conrad, Weitz
1978 - "Star Wars" released
1979 - American Airlines DC-10 crashes in Chicago killing 275; Israel begins to return Sinai to Egypt
1981 - Daniel Goodwin, scales outside of Chicago's Sears Tower in 7 hours
1982 - Iranian troops reconquer Khorramshar
1983 - "Return of the Jedi" (Star Wars 3) released; 1st National Missing Children's Day is proclaimed; Fire in Nassermeer, Egypt, kills 357
1985 - Cyclone ravages Bangladesh; 11,000 killed
1986 - Ferry boat Shamia sinks on Maghna River Bangladesh, 600 killed; Hands Across America - 7 million people hold hands from California to New York; Virgilio Barco elected President of Colombia
1989 - Mikhail Gorbachev elected Executive President in the Soviet Union
1991 - Israel evacuates 14,000 Ethiopian Jews
1992 - Oscar Luigi Scalfaro elected President of Italy

Birthdays
1550 - Camillus de Lellis, Italian soldier/monastery founder/saint
1713 - John Stuart, 3rd earl of Bute, English premier (1760-63)
1781 - Ferdinand, archduke of Austria-Este/Governor-General (Sicily)
1852 - Louis Franchet d'Espèrey [Desperate Frankey], French marshal (WWI)
1865 - Frederick Augustus III, King of Saxon (1904-18); John Raleigh Mott, organizer (YMCA, Nobel 1946); Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist (Zeeman effect, Nobel 1902)
1886 - Philip Murray, founded Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)
1889 - Igor Sikorsky developed a working helicopter
1892 - Josip Broz Tito Kumrovec, leader of Yugoslavia (1945-80)
1907 - U Nu, Premier of Burma (1948-58, 1960-62)
1932 - Georgi Mikhailovich Grechko, cosmonaut (Soyuz 17, 26, T-14)
1934 - Ron Nesson, press secretary (Gerald Ford)
1943 - Wynand C. Malan, South African lawyer/NP/DP-politician
1949 - Jamaica Kincaid [Elaine P. Richardson], Antigua/US journalist (New Yorker)

Passings
0615 - Boniface IV, Pope (608-15)
0709 - Aldhelmus of Ealdhelm, abbot/bishop/poet/saint, dies at about 69
0946 - Edmund the Older, King of Wessex/England (939-46)
1085 - Gregory VII [Ildebrando], Pope (1073-85)
1125 - Hendrik V, last Salische German King
1261 - Alexander IV [Rinaldo dei conti di Segni], Pope (1254-61)
1510 - Georges d'Amboise French cardinal/viceroy in North Italy, dies at 49
1849 - Andreas Michiels, Dutch Military Governor of West Sumatra, dies in battle at 52
1895 - Ahmed Djevdet Pasja, Turkish minister of Justice, dies at 73
1926 - Symon Petlyura, leader of Ukraine (pogroms), assassinated at 47
1949 - Simon H. Spoor, intelligence officer/general (WWII), dies at 47
1968 - George KFW von Küchler, German marshal (Netherlands 1940), dies at 86
1986 - Chester Bowles, US senator/ambassador, dies at 85
1992 - Philip C. Habib, US diplomat (Middle-East/Asia), dies at 72; Viktor Grishin, hardline soviet communist, dies at 78
1996 - David W Howe test pilot, dies at 77
1997 - Muhammad Fadhel, PM of Iraq (1953-54)

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Harnawee, Tha Chan "Chip," Thai Special Forces / Air America (Thailand); released September, 1974 - alive and well as of 1998

1967
Graves, Richard C., USNR (MA); A1H crashed

1969
Weitz, Monek, USMC (MA); KIA / BNR

Williams, Leroy C., USMC (FL); KIA / BNR

1970
Springman, Richard Harold, US Army (CA); released by PRG February, 1973 - alive as of 1996

1972
Strong, Henry H., USN (PA); A4F shot down

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